The survey, conducted in the final quarter of 2014, asked executives to answer questions about the Internet of Things, or IoT.

The IoT will bring the internet to many formerly unconnected home appliances, office or warehouse equipment, and factory machines (e.g., sensors that will ping managers if there’s something wrong with a factory line.)

We found security to be one of the most consistent concerns, even as companies begin to implement IoT-based systems:

Coupling this with past articles and reports, we found that the answers reflected the tenor of the general enterprise attitude toward the IoT: optimism tinged with some trepidation.

These findings reflect growing concerns over whether the IoT will expose large businesses to more disruptive and costly hacks. An earlier survey from the Harvard Business Review found that 46% of IoT early adopters faced obstacles with privacy and security compliance.

If you’ve ever found yourself in a new restaurant or a trendy tourist spot, you might’ve looked up Yelp or Foursquare — or, heaven forbid, used Google — on your phone to find out where the best view is or whether or not you should order the shrimp. Now, you might not need to, as long as you have Facebook installed. That’s because the company has just introduced something called “Place Tips,” which when enabled essentially pops up relevant content about your location as long as you’re there. Specifically, it’ll show posts and photos about the place from your friends if they’ve also visited it. The feature sounds very similar to what Foursquare already does with its own Tips, but with a much more Facebook-centric bent.

You’ll know Place Tips is working if you see a “tip” notification for the place that you’re at when you launch Facebook. Tap it, and it’ll show a series of cards about the place. Not only will you see the aforementioned posts and photos from your friends, you’ll also see basic info about the business. That info includes details like its operating hours, posts from its Facebook Page if it has one, popular menu items and upcoming events. Facebook was careful to note that tapping on these tips won’t post anything to your news feed or show anyone where you are.

Do note, however, that Place Tips is opt-out. That means that the feature is turned on by default if you’ve given Facebook permission to access your location — it uses a combination of WiFi, GPS and cellular networks to determine where you are. But if you prefer, you can go ahead and turn the feature off in settings. If you’d rather have finer grain control, you can even hide tips about specific places.

Place Tips will not be everywhere just yet; Facebook says it’s testing it in certain spots in New York, specifically Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty and JFK Airport. Additionally, the social network is also testing out Facebook Bluetooth beacons at select businesses to deliver even more tailored tips. Those locations include Dominique Ansel Bakery, the Strand Book Store, the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Brookyln Bowl, Pianos, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop and Veselka.

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Despite rumors popping up every so often that some people may be cutting back on Facebook usage, the social network reigns supreme. Given its huge audience, its not that surprising that the site dominates content sharing activity, too, accounting for 81% of all shares among US internet users in Q4 2014, according to data from ShareThis. In comparison, Pinterest accounted for 7% of total sharing volume, Twitter saw just 6% of the total pie, and reddit grabbed 2%.

What is interesting, though, is that the source found Facebook had expanded its share by an impressive 8.2% year over year. This was at the expense of almost every other channel studied. Twitter was hit hardest, ! with a 3 .0% drop in its share of sharing volume, while reddit, Pinterest, bloggers and LinkedIn experienced declines of less than 1%.

Facebook accounted for 85% of mobile sharing activity among US internet users in Q4 2014, according to ShareThis, up 51% year over year. The social site was slightly less popular for desktop, with just under three-quarters of the total.

A large chunk of that mobile traffic is likely coming via smartphones. According to a November 2014 study by Frank N. Magid Associates, smartphones accounted for about 44% of US Facebook users’ weekly time with the social network. Tablets grabbed 25% of time spent with Facebook each week, and desktops 32%.

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In China, as in other markets around the world, internet time appears to be surpassing TV time, as more and more people go online and mobile becomes a majority activity, according to a new eMarketer report, “China Time Spent with Media: Digital Activities Fuel a Multiscreen Market.”

Digital video is a key driver of the shift. Internet use in China skews sharply toward entertainment, and video is a major part of the mix. TV content viewed via digital screens is widely popular, in part because restrictions on linear TV content have allowed digital publishers leeway to offer more attractive content. But that seems likely to change under new regulations that go into effect later this year.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China’s digital online viewership as of Q2 2014 had reached 439 million users. It’s a young population: 80.1% of them in the 10-to-39-year-old range. Fully one-third are ages 10 to 19.Digital video usage reflects the fact that, compared with internet users in other countries, consumers in China are far more likely to use the internet for entertainment purposes.

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Over 50 million people consider themselves Amazon Prime members, according to RBC, and among the 4,000-plus US Amazon consumers polled by the firm in September 2014, 37% were Prime members. While the research suggested that free shipping on purchases remained the top reason for Prime membership, access to music and video streaming—another perk—is becoming more of a draw.

In September 2014, 10.1% of members said Amazon’s unlimited video streaming service was the primary reason for signing up for Amazon Prime. Though this was still small, it was up from 9.2% in June 2014 and 7.9% in May 2013.!

T he interest in unlimited video streaming is in line with a larger shift in consumers’ methods of video consumption; digital and alternative options are playing a bigger and bigger role. Digital TV Research Limited estimates released in November 2014 projected that the number of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) subscribers—those who subscribe for Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, for example—would rise from 43.5 million in 2014 to 61.6 million in 2020.

Of course, internet users aren’t just streaming digital video through SVOD services, and TNS found in Q3 2014 that 34% of US households had streamed digital TV and video. However, results indicated that consumers were getting more comfortable paying for such services. While streaming video penetration increased nearly 26% year over year, the percentage of US households who paid for streaming video rose 62.5%, from 16% to 26%.

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As if traditional media needed more bad news: November 2014 polling by Edelman found that online search engines had surpassed traditional media to become the most-trusted media source globally. The firm’s 2015 report revealed that 64% of internet users worldwide trusted online search engines the most (vs. 63% the prior year) for information. Meanwhile, traditional media saw its response rate fall from 65% to 62% year over year.

Hybrid media—which blends traditional and digital formats—sat in third place, holding tight at 53% of respondents. Wh! ile soci al media and owned media rounded out the list, both saw decent gains. Nearly half of respondents trusted social media for news and information, compared with 45% the prior year, and the response rate for owned media rose from 44% to 47%.

Search engines remained the most popular source that internet users turned to first for business information, cited by 31%, up from 29% the prior year. Just over one-fifth looked to newspapers first, down 4 percentage points, and TVs sat tight, with 22% of internet users choosing these as their first source of business info.

eMarketer expects US search ad spending to increase 12.2% in 2015, totaling $25.66 billion. Growth will be steady over the next few years, fueled by rising mobile and local search ad outlays. Desktop search spending will decline annually through 2018, while mobile search will increase by $12.84 billion during that time period.

The chocolate empire just agreed to purchase KRAVE Pure Foods, Inc., the company behind KRAVE jerky.

This is part of Hershey’s quest to become a bigger force in the snacking industry.

Michele G. Buck, North American president at Hershey, said the company’s simple ingredients appeal to modern consumers:

“KRAVE jerky is a great fit to our portfolio and overall snacks and adjacencies strategy … The KRAVE brand delivers on portable and protein nutrition while also understanding consumers’ food preferences, including the desire for simple ingredients and transparency, something that is also a part of Hershey’s strategic vision. We are excited to add KRAVE jerky’s unique, chef-inspired products and be a part of this transformational category.”

In a statement on Wednesday night, McDonald’s announced that Thompson will retire on March 1 after 25 years with the company, including the last two plus years as CEO.

During Thompson’s tenure, same-store sales have been on a steady decline as the fast food chain tries to keep pace with the changing pace of American consumers.

In its most recent quarter, McDonald’s reported global same-store sales that were down 0.9% while US same-store sales fell by 1.7%. And for almost the entirety of Thompson’s tenure, performance at McDonald’s restaurants was on the decline.

Thompson said in that earnings announcement that the company, “continues to face meaningful headwinds,” and added that same-stores sales are also expected to be negative in January and “remain pressured” in the first half of this year.

In the last two years, shares of McDonald’s are roughly unchanged, and in after hours trade on Wednesday, the stock was up more than 2.5%.

The increase in social-ad spending is driven by this continuously growing reach, particularly on mobile, better analytics and targeting, and performance. The rise of programmatic social platforms has also fueled growth.

New data from BI Intelligence finds that US social-media ad spend will top $8.5 billion this year and reach nearly $14 billion in 2018, up from just $6.1 billion in 2013.

In the report and associated PowerPoint presentation, BI Intelligence looks at all the numbers and explores the drivers of social ad adoption.

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Three-quarters of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America said digital marketing was effective for attracting customers, according to a November 2014 study by BrightLocal, and 37% planned to spend more on digital in the next 12 months. However, a lack of skill sets, budget and time could prevent advancements from happening.

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When asked about their attitudes toward digital marketing, the percentage of SMBs who understood it and were able to execute it on their own fell 11 percentage points between 2013 and 2014, from 40% to 29%. A close 28% were taking steps to learn about digital marketing, though, in order to be able to do it them! selves but again, they weren’t yet.

Meanwhile, the percentages of those who wanted to do digital marketing but faced hurdles rose across the board. More respondents cited budget (17%) and time (10%) restraints than did the year before.

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Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.